Thursday, 16 April 2009 14:27

Architect Teddy Cruz tracks a new kind of urban ecology: Across the border from San Diego in Tijuana, a spontaneous urban space is taking shape off the radar of city planners, as an affluent city sheds its aging houses and its pieces are reassembled into creative dwellings for the poor.

Tuesday, 14 April 2009 22:12 Written by Musstanser

By FELICITY BARRINGER
SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Gavin Newsom is competitive about many things, garbage included. When the city found out a few weeks ago that it was keeping 70 percent of its disposable waste out of local landfills, he embraced the statistic the way other mayors embrace winning sports teams, improved test scores or declining crime rates.

But the city wants more.

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So Mr. Newsom will soon be sending the city’s Board of Supervisors a proposal that would make the recycling of cans, bottles, paper, yard waste and food scraps mandatory instead of voluntary, on the pain of having garbage pickups suspended.

Read more...

Monday, 13 April 2009 22:30

Every year, up to 10,000 steel containers snap loose from the decks of storm-tossed cargo ships, scattering their contents at sea. Curtis Ebbesmeyer tracks all that junk, with the help of beachcombers worldwide. By plugging the coordinates of lost and found items into a computer-modeling system, he can trace the path of ocean-swept debris — and in the process measure the previously unknown size and speed of gyres. Ebbesmeyer chronicles his technique in the new book Flotsametrics and the Floating World. This map shows the 11 gyres he has studied (including Melville, the one he discovered), thanks to flotsam, jetsam, and a little volcanic pumice.

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source: http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/st_infoporn_1704

 

Wednesday, 01 April 2009 13:14 Written by Sarah Neilson

 In its efforts to compost organic waste collected alongside recycling and garbage, Toronto has retrofit its garbage trucks with a separate space for organics. Don't be fooled if it looks like just one compartment!

Original Source: City of Toronto's Garbage and Recycling website:

http://www.toronto.ca/greenbin/truck_compartments.htm